I read a word recently that I didn’t know the meaning of. There are, of course, plenty of words I don’t know, like the meanings of conservative and liberal for instance. Anyway, here’s the word: prexy.

My baldness column brought several comments, like the following from Ernie the Attorney: “Is it Linda Ronstadt’s `Poor, Poor Pitiful Me’ or Helen Reddy’s `I am baldy, hear me roar’? I overheard a conversation between a couple of veteran attorneys in a courtroom in Long Beach last century. They agreed God made a limited number of perfect heads and covered the rest with hair. Most of the long-haired surfer dudes of my youth seem to have acquired perfect heads.”

And this from Barb Jenkins in Tulsa, Okla.: “For some reason I always thought that California was a progressive state. When I lived in Torrance in the early 1990s, I learned that California was no different than any other somewhat ignorant place that I have had to stomach during a life of job repostings. I love your column and the way that you carry yourself in your photo and reading what some people have to say about you each Monday just makes me happy that I’m now living happily in a flyover state populated with hicks who would never stoop to rudeness of the sort sent in by your readers.”

My Rudy Giuliani column brought more replies than I have room here to present.

Mirandi Babitz of San Pedro wrote, “I really enjoyed reading your column today about Rudy, my horse in this race. I learned things I hadn’t known about him, and it made me like him even more. I knew he had a bit of the enforcer in him. I’m sad today because his campaign suffered one of the most dramatic self-inflicted nose dives ever seen in presidential politics.

“I just wanted to respond to Rudy’s mother in 1988 that showed her liberal bias with her comment that Rudy was not a conservative because he still feels sorry for the poor and to your disbelief about his conservative soul. Yes, he seems to me to be a pragmatist, but I don’t find that in any way inconsistent with his conservative views. Actually, he’s like a Kennedy liberal, which today is a conservative. His clear-eyed recognition of the depth of the Islamic terrorist threat to this country was only seen in the Democratic Party in one man, Joe Lieberman, and the party ran him out. … So much for liberals embracing divergent views.

“Conservatives have compassion in their souls; it’s just that they don’t believe it’s the job of government to take your money and create bureaucracies to help the poor. They believe it’s our individual job to do it. … All the studies of who gives to charity, who volunteers time, show that conservatives are way out in front. I really hope you can understand that conservatives aren’t bad people. …”

I understand. But using my money to create even more wealth for the wealthy is what, solid trickle-down economics?

This one is from Gary Richard, “I am trying to figure out how you feel about Giuliani. You point out that, unlike Tony Soprano, Rudy found his way over to the good side of the force. …

“You express disdain over his claim to be a conservative! Why? The man has conservative values as they pertain to taxes (lower tax rates to promote tax revenue growth), government (smaller is better), crime (punish criminals), and the war on terror (win it). On the other hand, he has not wavered from his views on abortion and civil unions. Finally, he is not passionate on the illegal immigration situation. My point is he can call himself a conservative on select issues. He was hoping that his strong leadership qualities combined with his conservative stances would appeal to the party base on a net basis. This was not a silly idea, as there is no perfect conservative candidate this time around. … Since nearly all Americans are derived from immigrants, are all conservatives traitors?”

No. I was commenting on certain immigrant groups (the darker ones) having a much harder time breaking into American society. In recalling an era when the breaks were going against Italians, I meant to illustrate how far we have all come in matters of ethnicity and religion and how far we still have to go even if you are white and happen to be Mormon.

John A. Karaczynski of Manhattan Beach wrote, “Today’s column on Rudy and Italian-Americans kindles many memories of growing up in Brooklyn. Nationality was a key point in so many conversations. Indeed, when my parents (first generation Polish-Americans) spoke about someone whom they had just met or did not know very well, they would inevitably ask, `What is he?’ The answer was always the same, `He’s Italian (or Irish or Greek or, God forbid, Russian).’

“Nationality had a way of defining you, of assigning you a place in a person’s pecking order. For the Sisters of Mercy who presided over my grammar school, Little Flower, the Irish were always at the top. It was never really clear to me whether the Poles or the Italians were at the bottom – but it was clear that we were natural allies. … Keep on writing so that I can continue reading.”

The Irish nuns at St. Anthony’s referred to us as “you Italians.”

Concerning roof repairs, Lynda Pierson wrote, “Ecclesiastics 10:18 – `Through great laziness the beamwork sinks in, and through the letting down of the hands the house leaks.’ Proverbs 27:15 – `A leaking roof that drives one away in the day of steady rain and a contentious wife are comparable.’ When it rains again in five years, are we going to again hear, `I’ll get somebody. Promise.’?”

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